A POT of funding of £250m will be made available for small and medium-sized businesses in the Midlands.

Simon Cunnington from British Business Bank and Paul Heaven from Blue Sky Corporate Finance spoke to a group of around 65 people at the Left Bank in Hereford on the imminent launch of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund.

The fund has been structured with money from the 10 Midlands Local Enterprise Partnerships, European Regional Development Fund, European Investment Bank and British Business Bank and will make £250 million available to small and medium-sized businesses, in the form of debt, equity, mezzanine or proof-of-concept finance.

The fund is specifically aiming to address a market failure which has developed since the financial crisis in 2008, namely that traditional funding sources (banks) have largely withdrawn from higher risk lending.

Although the date of the formal launch in April or May has not yet been announced, it is likely that the fund’s managers will be looking to build a pipeline of investment/lending candidates from late-March.

Further details are available from the Herefordshire growth hub at www.marchesgrowthhub.co.uk/about-us/hereford/

Once launched, the Midlands Engine Investment Fund will have its own website with details of the available funds and fund managers and the application process.